William Ellery Channing

The reveries of youth, in which so much energy is wasted, are the yearnings of a Spirit made for what it has not found but must forever seek as an Ideal.

God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth.

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.

Grandeur of character lies wholly in force of soul, that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, and love, and this may be found in the humblest condition of life.

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.

Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost.

Life has a higher end, than to be amused.

God be thanked for books; they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.

He who is false to the present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and you will see the effect when the weaving of a life-time is unraveled.

No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent.

Every human being has a work to carry on within, duties to perform abroad, influence to exert, which are peculiarly his, and which no conscience but his own can teach.

Influence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.